I did mention this quickly in another post, my lovely sock yarn that was too pretty for socks and the scarf I made from it. This took me about a month to make along side my other projects. The yarn is by Lang Yarns, and is called Mille Colori Socks and Lace, you can find it here from Loveknitting for a reasonable price, in several colour ways. It’s a 4ply weight yarn made from 75% wool and 25% polyamide with 400m for a 100g ball.

Lang Mille Colori in shade 0090

It was a real joy to knit with. I worked the entire shawl on 4.5mm straight bamboo needles, at the end there were nearly 300 stitches, but because it was a 4ply weight this was still possible. The yarn was very soft and the colour changes amusing, slow but not too slow to lose interest with. It was always surprising which colour came next, because the orange and bright blue do kind of clash but at the same time blend in perfectly.

I had one minor disaster with the yarn where it snapped because I had a bit of fluff around it and I pulled too hard, but it just felted back together with little to no effort. I didn’t find any breaks or joins either. I’d really love to use this yarn again for more shawls, jackets, baby wear, it’s just it’s too nice for socks.

Folded and laid flat you can see the lovely stripes

I loved the way this yarn striped on my shawl pattern, it’s a triangle, but knitted from the neck down and blocked into the right shape afterwards. The pattern is called Proserpine and I got it from an issue of Knit Now, you can buy it from Ravelry here, It takes 600m or 150g of 4ply yarn and 4.5mm needles. I only had one ball so just went for it and I cast off before the end, I did about 3/4 of it. It’s two lace patterns with stocking stitch in between. The lace patterns are simple enough but elegant.

A quick photo of it as a short shawl

I took this quickly before blocking with my Pink Floyd shirt, good choice no?

And an inside view

The stocking stitch is even loose enough to let a fair amount of light through, it’s a beautiful pattern and this yarn really compliments it. If I had another two balls I’m sure I’d be tempted to do it again.

And all that was left

So that’s it for my shawl, I’m hoping to get some good photos as the weather is getting better. They’ll be in another post.

Everyone who has seen my knitting this has asked “Andi, what the fack are you playing at there?!” So, as you can imagine, they stopped asking in the end. I pretty much improvised the short rows, as the pattern was on my tablet and I’m scared of taking it out in the metro, so because I did 90% of this in public it’s a blob of improvisation, but I love how it came out. I would recommend this pattern to anyone who loves knitting and has been asked how many hats they’ve knitted. And also for people who want to gloat that they can knit several hats. I’ve been affectionately calling this “I heard you like hats so I made you a hat full of hats” and you can see my Ravelry notes here, although I do need to update these on the project page. I also did another blog post on this a couple of days back.

The pattern is from the unofficial Harry Potter knitting book, and you can find the info about it here on Ravelry. Overall it too a while for me to get it, and some of the joins are a little fiddely, but this is a great stash busting project and I’d recommend it.

I used odds and sods of Phildar Charly. Great yarn, fairly cheap if you’re in France. Otherwise, don’t bother too much.

Why so many hats?

Although this is for someone else I couldn’t resist trying it on and parading around the place I live with it. The looks the other women gave me! And someone asked me if it was really cold enough to wear multiple hats, so it had the desired effect.

I did block it too, and I never block anything! Actually, this is the only thing I’ve steam blocked, so that was interesting. First time I’ve used an iron too. “MUUUUMMMMMMMM?! Can you iron my…. oh, right, you’re in England… Hm” I just pressed a button and steam bellowed out, it wasn’t too hard. I also used a towel folded twice over it to give it a good folded edge on the yellow hat.

So many ends, but so worth it.

I’m a nightmare when it comes to sewing up. Sometimes I do, but I don’t cut the ends (like my hat from the loony bin) sometimes I don’t and I hope for the best… and sometimes I do, but I don’t sew the pieces up. This one I forced myself to because it’s a gift. Only took an hour.

Just a quick little post to tell people this blog has a facebook page. I have two, one for my old blog that I update rarely, and a shared one with my mum where we both post our crafting things.
I’d love if you could stop by and like this page.

I wanted to do something with some odd wool, I wanted to make a toy for Sandy. I was looking for something small so he could hold it, and something quick so I could finish it. This is the end result. Since then I’ve made four, but two of them don’t have limbs because he was enjoying using them as balls.

They took me around a day to knit each one, but this was knitting while my son was sleeping so they can be done much quicker. I’d guess around four to eight hours.

The wool I used was Phildar Charly, which is 100% acrylic. It comes in 50g balls and it’s really nice and soft, it doesn’t seem to get fluffy either.

The pattern was very simple to follow, all knitted flat in garter stitch and then sewn up. It seems great for beginners because it’s small, quick and easy. Even sewing it up is fully explained. I tweaked it slightly by not using the cardboard stiffener and skipping stuffing the legs. You could also put a big bell inside wrapped in the stuffing to make a little baby rattle.

I did make one of the hats, but it got lost and for a baby it’s not really needed. Although they are so cute. These would have been an awesome stocking filler for christmas too. And even better there’s actually a boy octopus and a girl octopus in the pattern, or a unisex one if you don’t knit the accessories.

So that’s enough of my rambling, you can find the online pattern by Jean Greenhowe here. You can either print it, or work off of the screen like I did.

I’m happy to read your comments and answer any questions you have too. Thanks for reading and happy knitting.

Three little octopi(?) sitting on a chair. I’ve lost the forth one and I don’t know where.

I already have a blog. So why am I starting another one? Well, this is my forth blog, but my last one has just got a little messy. I’m not abandoning it, I will still write there. This blog is for posts that I am proud of. Not my depressing rants and garbage like that.

My mum’s blog is hosted on wordpress and looks much neater than my blogspot. The community seems nicer too.

So who am I? What do I write about? My name is Andi, I’m 20, I’m a young, single parent. I’ve had two sons, my first when I was a teenager at 17, my second at 19, but at the moment I’ve only got my second. I’m from the UK, but I’m living in France with Sandy, and Neil is somewhere with his dad. I mainly write about my parenting choices, and mum things like nappies, and toys. Sometimes I write about knitting or sewing too.

Sandy is almost 13 months old, he’s still breastfed, he doesn’t cry much. And he has a big, fat cloth bum. He’s a very social, energetic little boy who crawls everywhere and gets into everything.